Editing The Pen Addict 245/transcript (section)

== Manufacturing ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, this is the manufacturing part. That's a brutal, right? It's hard. So we're on time. So basically I put out a backer update, gave kind of the ins and outs in a couple of short paragraphs. And at the end, I basically just boil it down to bottom line looks like we're still on time. So that's all you need to know right now for the linear. So we should be shipping in April. I don't know if I'm going to be able to deliver backer stuff at the pen show. Like we're going to be on that tight of a schedule, but you know, we're really, really, really, really, really close to being on time.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So it's just manufacturer problems.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's freaking tough. Like I yell on the phone now is my job.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't like, I don't like the sound of that, man. That doesn't sound like fun. But it's okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, no, it's just, it's like, I have a really friendly relationship with them. They know where I'm coming from. I know where they're coming from. And when I have to push, I just have to push. I mean, this is how, this is my job.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, it's funny how like your job changes, right? Like as time goes on, it starts to morph. Like you had an idea of it being this thing and it still is that thing, but it also comes with all this other stuff that you didn't expect.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, you're, you're experiencing that now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's like my, our good friend, Harry Marks put in a, I, and just in one of the Facebook groups I'm in, he was talking about like manufacturers and manufacturing and limited editions. And, you know, I don't have the whole thing in front of me, but he was just going on and on about, you know, why do we do this? Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? He wasn't making any statement one way or the other, but he was just having a discussion. And all I've replied was manufacturing is hard. Like it just is like, I knew when we did this Kickstarter, I had to build in a buffer. So we didn't look ridiculous because things are going to happen. And guess what? Exactly. Those things happened.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And somehow I'm going to hit this date, but that date, I mean, I'll tell you up front, but like when we're laying out the Lanier, I was like, do we want it in January? We knew we couldn't do Christmas. And we're like, well, January seems a little bit of a stretch. So maybe February. Okay. So if we think they're going to be ready in February, we probably need to do April because something's going to happen. And here we are.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. It seems difficult.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It is. It is difficult. It's difficult and time consuming and expensive, but I enjoy it. It's what we do. I enjoy being able to create these things and make cool stuff. I mean, that's what we try to do. Make cool stuff. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But there's a lot, there's a lot that happens between idea and cool stuff, right? Like, yes. And that's what you're doing right now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, right, right, right. So yeah, it's all good though. I mean, like we're like, I'm as happy as I've ever been with our manufacturing process today, even though I'm behind on retail shipments. What they're doing right now, they finally, it's taken months of phone calls and meetings to get to where we're at today, but they see the potential we have. We know the potential and quality that they have. So we're finally in that spot now where all that's syncing up and that's taken like six months. We thought all this would be six months. I thought the point I'm at today would be six months ago. Mm-hmm. It just doesn't have worked that way. That was naive of me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I'm happy that it's moving along. Yep. You sound tired from it, honestly. Like just hearing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, because it's not just that. Because I have so much we want to do, right? I mean, we design products. So we, there's a lot of handholds. I'm not a retailer that says, give me a hundred of these pens that already exist.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes in this. That's what takes up all of our time. So I'm, I, yeah, there's been points in the past month or two where Jeff and I have been like, gosh, like, what are we going to do? You know, but we've had these experiences before. Yeah. We've had these, oh my gosh, we're going to die experiences. It's scary running your own business and providing for your family this way. Yep. Like this is what you're relying on. So, but that just makes you bust it that much harder. And, you know, I want, I want, I'm the right person to yell on the phone because I do it in a way. I mean, I need to get what I need to get and I'm going to get it. But that's the way it's going to be. That's the hustle, man. Yeah. I got to, got to keep it hustle, man. It's, it's been a difficult, it's taken longer than we expected. Yeah. So, but in the end, like externally, everything is going well. Like we just don't have enough product, but it's happening. It's all happening now.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Again, not bad. It's not a bad, as far as problems go, it's not a bad problem. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. So that's, that's why we can't have the pen addict Kickstarter pouch like in April or May, because I have other stuff lined up ahead of it that have been in months in process.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So Brad Dowdy, the field notes just dropped.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, let's do it. Where are we at? All right.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So we are looking at here, the, the 34th edition, the spring for 2017 is called Utility. Okay. I think you're going to like the look of these. This seems, this seems right up your street, honestly. Here we go. Here we go. Kind of color wise and idea wise. Utility features your choice of two often requested, but rarely available body pages, engineer graph or ledger.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, engineer graph.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Engineer graph features a one eighth inch grid with borderlines each half inch.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. That's a traditional design.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They're yellow and they have like the bottoms of the books have the, which I think is a very nice touch, the, a design element, which indicates what paper's inside. Mm-hmm. Which I think is very nice. Oh, let me see the covers. Safety yellow.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So the grid pattern is on the cover.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. But only on the bottom.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right, right, right, right. Um, black staples.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Black staples are nice.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So sorry for the pausing while we're doing this. We're literally reading this right now. We're reading it as we get it up.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's a key chain bottle opener for subscribers. The after hours utility tool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So this is drink local style where it's two three packs. Everything comes to itself. Yep. You want utility graph, that's a three pack. If you want utility ledger, that's a three pack.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, but as a purchaser, you can choose. You can buy either.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But do we get one? We should get one of each.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I assume a subscriber gets one of each. But like if you want to buy extras, you can choose.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Um.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' These are killer.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They got a ruler built into them as well. Like into the cover. It unfolds from the edge.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I'm. Oh, and it folds out. Yeah. It comes. Oh, Christ. That's really smart.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think these are nice.